Ottawa St. meeting held to discuss “exile list”

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It is the issue on Ottawa Street that is simply being called the “exile list.” Today a meeting between the Ottawa Street business improvement area and local owners became heated and now some are calling for the board to be disbanded..

If you wanted a chance to be heard at the Ottawa Street business improvement office, you had to be loud. People were yelling for board chair Nancy Leo to tell the truth, and her telling them that she was. They exclaimed that she was not Stephen Harper, and that she needed to answer the questions.

The question was over the so called exile list. A series of post it notes, with the names of 11 businesses that were to receive no promotion.

“That list was actually meant for them to prepare an incident report.” explained Leo.

As in to act as a reminder to staff and help create a code of conduct. Leo, did not write the list, and denied that it was meant to hurt any businesses. “Why I would – by any stretch of the of imagination – get an exile list, to exile businesses is beyond me.”

But the explanation seemed to fall flat.

Tracy Roman from Steeltown Pickers does not believe their denial. “I don’t know who’s doing what on the board but it doesn’t really seem genuine.”

Sue Moffat from Maxam Fitness knew she was targeted and it hasn’t been the first time in the 8 years she has been there. “Exile was used as a word to develop a code of conduct. I don’t think so.”

Lauren Olsen, the Ottawa Street BIA marketing manager is the one who first showed the list to those who were on it. “I was handed that list, by a co worker and told unequivocally that I was not allowed to talk to them.”

Regardless of whether the business owners on Ottawa Street believe there was or was not a exile list, Ward 2 councillor and board member Matthew Green says it’s part of a much larger problem, that has to be fixed. “If people think disbanding the board is somehow going to magically solve these issues it’s not. There are some governance issues, there are some HR policy issues that still need to be addressed.”

If members do decide to disband the board, the process will begin next meeting.